Israeli forces shot a Palestinian teenager dead near Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank. The victim was the second Palestinian teenager killed this week.
The 14-year-old, identified by Palestinian media as Zayd Mohamed Saeed Ghoneim, was shot in his neck and back, the health ministry said in a statement.
Ghoneim is the fifth child shot and killed by the unrestrained Israeli army gunfire this month and the 13th since the start of this year.
The killing is part of a series of crimes and field executions carried out by the occupation forces” the ministry said.
The Israeli military said it responded with live bullets when a number of suspects hurled rocks and petrol bombs at soldiers in the area.
Eyewitnesses told WAFA news agency that Ghoneim was surprised by the presence of Israeli occupation soldiers in the village and that as he tried to hide in a parking garage, he was targeted by the Israeli soldiers who fired live bullets at him and killed him in cold blood.
Expressing deep concern about the spiraling cycle of Israeli violence in Palestine, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland called upon “all sides to exercise maximum restraint and make wise decisions to avoid another violent conflict that will only claim more lives.”
